Man Agrees to Plead Guilty in Fla. Officer's Slaying

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A man arrested in March for his involvement in
the 1998 slaying of a Polk County, Fla. police officer will plead guilty
and likely spend the rest of his life in federal prison.

Christopher B. Gamble, 27, signed a plea agreement Wednesday in which
he also agreed to testify against others involved in the slaying of
Haines City rookie officer Christopher Horner.

No one else has been arrested yet, but Gamble's statement implicates
four unnamed accomplices.

The agreement allowed Gamble, already serving a 20-year sentence for
armed robbery, to escape a possible death sentence if he was
convicted at trial.

Horner, a 35-year-old father of six, was found shot to death in a
cemetery, about 30 minutes after he radioed a dispatcher that he was
checking on a suspicious car. He was shot once in the back of the
head with his own police handgun.

The gun was found underneath Horner's body.

After his death, a rift developed between investigators who believed
Horner killed himself and those who thought he was slain.

Gamble's statement said one of his accomplices killed Horner after
his weapon was wrested away, shortly after the rookie officer
encountered the group in the cemetery. Gamble said he and four other
men drove two stolen cars there early on that March morning after
robbing a Holiday Inn.

Gamble said he shoved the gun under Horner's body to make it appear
to be a suicide, the statement said.

He agreed to plead guilty in court next week to a total of 17 federal charges.

Copyright 2015 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.